The Story of The Son - Sermon for Christmas Day (December 25, 2025)

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 52:7–10 | Psalm 98 | Hebrews 1:1–12 | Matthew 1:1-25

“Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
 
The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.” (Isaiah 52:9-10).
 
One thing my family and I love to do this time of year is to watch Christmas movies… setting aside time together to experience these familiar stories we revisit year after year that stir up all sorts of warm and sentimental memories… while every so often adding a new one or two to the mix… and so, the tradition grows.
 
This morning, Christmas Day, amid all the other activities and busyness of the season, we gather together and set aside time to recount the familiar story of the birth of Jesus Christ… to worship the One born in Bethlehem, to receive the gift of His life gathered around His table, and to remember that, far from being a mere tradition, or a warm, sentimental fable… the Story of Christmas marks the turning point within the whole story of God… the whole human story… and our stories as well.
 
In our reading from Matthew Chapter 1, the Gospel author takes pains to remind us of the origins of the One we celebrate today: that Jesus is the Son of Abraham… a child of Israel, of the tribe of Judah… sharing completely in this people’s story… the story of God’s grace and saving love embracing them, freeing them, and seeing them through countless crises and disasters over the centuries.
 
This list of names calls to mind many characters and episodes in Israel’s story, and locates Jesus squarely in the midst of it… bound to the story of His people’s faithfulness and failures… their moments of glory, and also their ruin and rebellion. This list of names intentionally calls to mind the stories of patriarchs and prostitutes… kings and consorts… reformers and foreigners… and dozens of others whose stories have simply been lost to the sands of time. The story of Israel in the Holy Scriptures is by no means a picture-perfect, Hallmark movie story… but it is one very much at home in our broken and struggling world.   
 
But in the midst of this story, in the midst of Israel’s story… and our whole human story… the Living God chooses to do something new and marvellous: by the power of the Holy Spirit, God brings His Eternal Son into the world through the body of Mary. Not only is He the true Son of Abraham, Jesus is also the true Son of Mary, graciously born into our world to share in its broken story completely… to bear along with us the pains and sorrows of life, and bring hope and joy to those of us still shrouded in darkness… embodying true faithfulness, and God’s saving love up close and in everyday life. 
 
Through someone as ordinary and unknown as Mary, the Son of God took on flesh for us and with us… and so God’s gift of salvation to our world, started off in ages past with Abraham, and promised through God’s prophets takes a massive step forward. As we heard in our reading from Isaiah 52:10, “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
 
But we know that this gift of saving love… the gift of God’s Son sent to save Israel and all the world… comes at an incredible cost: in faithfulness and self-giving love, the Son of God chooses to take up His cross, and with it all of our failures and shame and brokenness… and He bears it all for us, offering up His life in our place to cleanse us of our sins and reconcile us to God and to one another… dying to set us free, and rising again to conquer death and reign with His Father forever… and to share the eternal life of hope, and peace, and joy, and the love of His Kingdom with us all even now… present with us always through the gift of the same Holy Spirit that was at work in Mary. 
 
The Story of Christmas, though probably well known to us all gathered here today, is far more than a familiar and sentimental story about shepherds, and mangers and angel choirs. It is the great announcement of the Good News of Jesus Emmanuel: the message that the Son of God… God our Saviour truly is here with us… challenging the ways we see our own stories, and the story of our world… no longer focussed on desperately trying simply to hold tragedy and disaster at bay, but rejoicing because we now know that despite all of the darkness at work around us, our Saviour King Jesus has come, He is with us even now… and He will come again in glory to make everything new.
 
So may we all celebrate the story of Christmas today and always by proclaiming in all we say and do the Good News of Jesus Emmanuel: that God our Saviour is with us, sharing the gifts of His hope, and peace, and joy, and love with all those around us. Amen.